This invention relates to newly identified polypeptides and polynucleotides encoding such polypeptides, to their use in therapy and in identifying compounds which may be agonists, antagonists and/or inhibitors which are potentially useful in therapy, and to production of such polypeptides and polynucleotides.
The drug discovery process is currently undergoing a fundamental revolution as it embraces xe2x80x98functional genomicsxe2x80x99, that is, high throughput genome- or gene-based biology. This approach as a means to identify genes and gene products as therapeutic targets is rapidly superseding earlier approaches based on xe2x80x98positional cloningxe2x80x99. A phenotype, that is a biological function or genetic disease, would be identified and this would then be tracked back to the responsible gene, based on its genetic map position.
Functional genomics relies heavily on high-throughput DNA sequencing technologies and the various tools of bioinformatics to identify gene sequences of potential interest from the many molecular biology databases now available. There is a continuing need to identify and characterise further genes and their related polypeptides/proteins, as targets for drug discovery.
The present invention relates to SPHINGLY, in particular SPHINGLY polypeptides and SPHINGLY polynucleotides, recombinant materials and methods for their production. In another aspect, the invention relates to methods for using such polypeptides and polynucleotides, including the treatment of cancers, cardiovascular disorders, thrombosis, atherosclerosis, wound healing, stroke, CNS disorders, neuronal disorders and apoptosis, hereinafter referred to as xe2x80x9cthe Diseasesxe2x80x9d, amongst others. In a further aspect, the invention relates to methods for identifying agonists and antagonists/inhibitors using the materials provided by the invention, and treating conditions associated with SPHINGLY imbalance with the identified compounds In a still further aspect, the invention relates to diagnostic assays for detecting diseases associated with inappropriate SPHINGLY activity or levels.